hope

Dreams are exciting. They can be wonderful-exciting but they can also be scary-exciting–at least until you wake up from them.

How can you tell if you’re dreaming? Sometimes you can’t until you wake up. You need something to compare and contrast with your dream. Once you’re awake you can do a reality check. “That was so weird. Thank God that was only a dream.”

The way you understand the world is constantly changing. As a child, what you experience early on becomes your best understanding of what the world is all about. If that experience was horrible or even neutral, you’ll form that kind of worldview and self-image. From there your understanding will continue to roll downhill unless something happens to point you in a new direction.

Thank God that He has redeemed us. He is calling us out of darkness, as if we were waking up from a bad dream.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV

Having mercy and never having received mercy are two very different places to be.

What you experience becomes truth to you until something more true takes its place. Something totally wrong can seem obviously true. When God gives you a new heart and exposes you to the light, only then can you see the contrast. This experience can be so shocking, it’s hard to discern what is true and what is false. A psychological term for this is cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is good for you. When you struggle to make sense of life, you are experiencing an opportunity to grow–to move further into the light. You should be experiencing this emergence all the time. Here are some examples:

• Do you remember the first time you realized that Santa Clause wasn’t real?
• Have you developed your own worldview, or are you still running off of your parent’s worldview?
• How does your view of the opposite sex compare to when you were 10 years old?
• If you’re married, do you remember what you thought marriage was before you got married?
• What was your life like before you became a Christian? How do you see God differently now?

How have you changed in the past year? What has God been doing to “wake you up” from your false beliefs? Take a moment to thank God for His light. Ask Him to shine it upon you so you can see more clearly.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26 NIV

Image by ArtTower from Pixabay

Have you ever behaved irrationally? I have. Irrational behavior is just another way of stubbornly clinging to your biases. It’s also a cry to be recognized for who you are.

What happens when a life event confronts who you think you are? That’s an identity crisis. In the worst case, it seriously threatens your sense of well-being.

You need to feel inner stability. You need an identity. A lack of identity feels like sinking without reaching a firm bottom. You feel squishy, inadequate, and ashamed.

Choosing Stubbornness For Stability

Because the need for stability is so strong, it’s possible to settle for a false sense of security. This can sometimes be okay when you need a quick moment to catch your breath. Life can be intimidating sometimes. But a quick fix won’t last long. A consistent pattern of avoidance isn’t healthy.

Stubbornness has a negative connotation. Stubborn people pursue self-protection even when it costs them their integrity. They lie and people-please to minimize their contact with reality.

Stubborn people are prideful. They are like the people who build their house on the sand instead of the rock. There house might go up quickly, but it won’t last nearly as long as the house built upon the rock.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Matthew 7:24-27 ESV

The need to feel good about yourself creates a strong temptation to remain biased. Every person has the right to choose, but it doesn’t mean everyone is right. People are irrational. They can say the sky is purple because it supports their inner reality. They can even go so far as to insist that the sky is always purple. They might do this because they don’t like living with change.

Experiencing inner stability is important. You should seek to achieve it first. But then, if you want to participate in a meaningful reality, the next step is to seek the truth.

Choosing Tenacity For Truth

As disruptive as the truth might be, it’s the only way to construct a firm foundation. In order to seek God and His truth, you must be willing to give up the false-security of your biases. To be tenacious, you must humble yourself.

Tenacity has positive, forward momentum. A tenacious person pursues a higher goal without ever giving up. The truth is welcomed even when it produces a temporary set-back.

Tenacious people are willing to look at whatever inaccuracies, faults, or flat out lies are preventing them from moving forward. They care more about the higher cause than how comfortable they are. Therefore, they are willing to give up their self-protective pretenses.

How about you? Are you willing to sacrifice your comfort in order to build something lasting?

If so, it’s okay to start small. Try to simply be aware of your biases and self-protective ways. When you are ready, take the risk to be tenacious.

Image by Mabel Amber from Pixabay